In “The Importance of being Earnest” the quote by Gwendolen that states “A home is the right place for a man and yes once a man begins to fail in his house duties he becomes painfully feminine or does he? In which makes him attractive.” shows the reversal of gender roles in Gwendolen’s mind. It shows this by turning around the traditional roles of man and women. This tests the ideal’s that say women should raise the children while men work. Instead it shows how women can have jobs or occupations such as men. Thus showing us in this quote how man and women are equal.
In the quote it shows a sense of refusal with people when it comes to not being ok with switching gender roles. One person in particular in this book who doesn’t agree with the
She has us see someone with the same mindset as us, in regards to gender, enter an androgynous world and interact with the inhabitants to establish relationships. We share his reactions and can realize how much gender dictates within our society and restricts our views to understand other’s interpretations. Social norms have been shaped by the way we perceive gender in a way we’ve become blind to the issues it creates. We’ve become desensitized to the serious issues that gender has affected like gender roles, job inequality, politics, and much
Nora and Mrs. Wright’s social standing when compared to the men in each play is inferior. Both works expose their respective male characters’ sexist view of women diminishing the women’s social standing. Each work features egotistical men who have a severely inflated view of their self-worth when compared to their female counterparts. The men’s actions and words indicate they believe women are not capable of thinking intelligently. This is demonstrated in “Trifles” when Mr. Hale makes the statement about women only worrying about mere trifles. It is also apparent in “A Dollhouse” when Torvalds thinks his wife is not capable of thinking with any complexity (Mazur 17). Another common attribute is of the women’s social standing is displayed as both women finally get tired of feeling like second class citizens and stand up to the repressive people in the women’s lives (Mulry 294). Although both women share much in common in their social standing there subtle differences. Torvald’s sexist view of Nora is more on a personal level in “A Dollhouse” while the male characters’ sexist views in “Trifles” seem to be more of a social view that women are not very smart and their opinions are of little value. This attitude is apparent in “Trifles” as Mr. Hale and Mr. Henderson’s comments about Mrs. Wright’s housekeeping (Mulry 293). As the women in both works reach their emotional
..., for example, “gender is either boy or girl”; “you cannot change what you already are”. Accordingly, Hage and Ruzylo are trying to explain that no matter what there will always be people judging a unique or different person; this judgement can later cause the homosexual and transgendered people to be stuck between two different genders. Stephanie from the documentary explains; “when ordering something at a store while wearing a dress, they still call me sir or Mr.” Even though she wants to be treated as a woman and she even changed her appearance to be viewed as a woman, people are still determined that she is a man. The public’s confusion makes the transgender lose her identity; there is nothing more she can do to prove that she is a woman. Furthermore, the young boy says that people would call him “she, he, they” because they are not sure of what they are seeing.
In each of these plays, the protagonist is a woman who has a very independent mindset, but is limited by society in how much she is able to do for herself. For example, after Antigone buries Polynices, she tries to defend what she did to Creon. However, he refuses to listen to her because he doesn’t want to seem like he would listen to a woman (Sophocles 37). His refusal shows that men are supposed to be dominant over women and a man who listens to a woman is not masculine. It also represents the idea that during this time period, women have no valuable opinion. Additionally, in A Doll’s House, Nora is criticized for taking out the loan on her own, like when Mrs. Linden says, “Why, a wife can’t borrow without her husband’s consent!" (Ibsen 151). This criticism demonstrates the idea that women are unable to make their own decisions and decide things for themselves. It also shows the belief that only men have the sense to make a business deal, and w...
There is something to be said about quotes. The way the knowledge of achievers is brought down to just a few lines. It gives us a sense of both reflection and wisdom. They are relatable and can guide us to a conclusion of where we are and who we aspire to be. In our quote assignment we are told to choose three quotes from a selection that was posted on the board every week. All of them can be related to my life in some way, shape, or form. However, these are the three that I believe relate to me the best.
In conclusion, Even though both Ibsen and Glaspell are showing the responsible for giving women insight to what their lives could be as an independent person who is treated as an equal, their plays deals somewhat different sight to deals with the problems of the inequality between men and women. In other words, in A Doll’s House, Nora – like many others – begins to realize that she is more than capable of thinking and living for herself. Unlike Nora, however, in Trifles, Mrs. Wright chose to stay married to her unloving and murder her husband. Moreover, unlike what A Doll’s house portrayed, in Trifles, Glaspell shows the power of women can gain by sticking together and looking out for one another in order to improve their social positions from the behavior of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters.
When deciding what element a play should contain, one must look at a large variety of options. These options can alter how the audience depicts the play and change their overall opinions. Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a play set around 1895 where the protagonist, Jack Worthing, takes on two identities in order to avoid social obligations. This play’s era affects how the characters are dressed and how their households appear.
She returns to the topic of sexes and how that women no not prefer the smaller groups composed solely of women. This was due to the fact that the all the women were talking so much, that some of the women didn’t feel that they could contribute fairly. “This is particularly revealing because it highlights that the same person who can be “oppressed” into silence in one context can become the talkative “oppressor” in another” (Tannen 348). This is not only a poor choice of words, but is extremely offensive to any person that has been through honest forms of oppression. Putting the word in quotations does not take away from what she is implying. The fact that some people have a personality to be shy and be nervous to speak up in groups of many people talking, is being compared to the oppression of things like, women having their heads cut off from speaking up, as just one example. Oppression is something that effects many cultures and people every day, and is not something to be taken lightly as Tannen has done in her article.
Comparing the Roles of Women in Arcadia, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Look Back in Anger
Throughout history, a woman's role is to be an obedient and respectful wife. Her main obligation is to support, serve, and live for her husband and children. In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House and Susan Glaspell's Trifles, two different women make a decision to take matters into their own hands by doing what they want to do, no matter what the outcome may be and in spite of what society thinks. These two women come from different homes and lead very different lives yet, these two women share similar situations--both are victims, both are seeking individuality, and initially, both women end up alone. There are many ways that Nora and Mrs. Wright differ. First of all, both come from completely different households. Nora's home is "tastefully [. . .] furnished" and always "pleasant"(917). She lives in a lavish home eating macaroons, drinking champagne, and hosting banquets. Nora often has guests at the house and there are even maids to watch her children. Her husband, Torvald, is often home and has guests over. On the other hand, Mrs. Wright's home is unpleasant, in an "abandoned farmhouse"(977) in a secluded area. Mrs. Wright seldom has company, nor does she have any children. She does not leave the house very often and her husband, Mr. Wright, wants no outside interference. Mr. Wright refuses to get a "party telephone"(978) because he enjoys his "peace and quiet"(978). It is obvious that these two women lead different lives with different types of people, yet they share similar situations that are not so obvious.
class, and sadly to say yes. In today's world it seems that class is still a
She talks about how women and men act similar because of their emotions such as happiness, remorse and sadness but due to a different part of their brain, their reactive response to each emotion makes them different. This is where the stereotype of each gender comes into play with the female coming as better caretakers because they react better to happiness and comfort whereas the males are better workers because they react more to a reward. This is proven throughout time and history because while the women stayed home in many societies, the male was able to go out hunt, get food and provide for the
Women belonged at home and were expected to cook, clean, raise children, and keep her husband happy. Women had no freedom and were controlled by their husbands. Women needed to keep up with their appearances to get married off in order to fulfill her “womanly duties.” All women during this time period were taught to desire and work towards this goal. In addition, men have to live up to image of being a strong and a good provider. Men were taught at a very young age that emotion was only for women and not men. The ideal of being perfect and keeping up with appearances is prevalent in Ibsen’s, A Doll’s House. In the play, Torvald told Nora that he did not want her to ruin her “pretty little hands” meaning Torvald believed that it is not good for Nora to do any job that could potentially ruin her best quality, which is her appearance. This further illustrates that society wants women to have no purpose other than to look good. In the beginning of the play, Nora does what society says she should do and be. Nora wants to be appear to be the perfect wife and keep Tovald happy by listening to him and keeping up with her appearences. She wants to appear to have the perfect household and her children are necessary for the perfect family image. Yet, she does not raise her children, the maid does. She only greets and plays with her children. Nora was masking her duty as a mother. Ibsen, titled the
“A Doll’s House” gives the reader a firsthand view at how gender roles affected the characters actions and interactions throughout the play. The play helps to portray the different struggles women faced during the 19th century with gender roles, and how the roles affected their relationships with men as well as society. It also helps to show the luxury of being a male during this time and how their higher status socially over women affected their relationships with woman and others during this time period.
In the case of `A Doll's House', the marriage of Nora and Torvald is clearly representative of the struggle between individualism and the expectations of society. At the beginning of the play Nora is almost completely immersed in the roles that are set out for her by society - that of a dutiful wife and mother. In her dialogue with Mrs Linde, Nora illustrates how a woman was valued according to how well she fulfilled those two roles. Her sympathy is evident ...